Two Weeks ‘til Lift-off

Two weeks today and I will be setting off on a plane to India for the biggest adventure of my life! I booked my yoga teacher training a few months ago, and I finally feel close enough to the time that I am letting myself get excited about it.

I am currently bogged down with writing reports and marking and of year papers from my day job as a secondary English teacher and I feel uncomfortably sat between two chapters of my life. Going through the motions in a job I worked so hard to get, after realising it was a one-way ticket to burnout and feelings of being overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated.

I want to track this incredible time of transformation in writing, poetry, photos, audios, video and any other way I can think of because I want to be able to look back at how far I’ve come with great joy. I also wonder if maybe I could potentially use some of this to inspire others to do the same.

I am scared of taking the leap, but it is totally eclipsed by the sense of excitement I feel. I can practically smell the freedom approaching as each day passes. The way I see it, I am more afraid to be trapped eternally in the life I am currently living, with a day job that doesn’t allow me to flourish than I am of the unknown.

I have always sensed that my life will not follow the conventional trappings that most people’s do. I spent my early 20s chasing the sun around the world, an eternal summer, oscillating between northern and southern hemispheres. As some flowers survive in rainforests, and some in deserts, I wilt in cold, dark British winters. I used to think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, but now I just think I thrive in sunnier climates. So I stayed in them, spending every British winter abroad in Tenerife, India, Thailand, Peru and returning to the UK only when the weather cheered up.

My world got smaller after a particularly badly planned trip to Peru. It was so stressful and tumultuous that I desired stability, and set my sail towards teaching secondary English in my hometown. My partner at the time was very happy to live in Norwich and so for a year and a half, my heart anchored me to my home town and I taught in UK schools.

I’ve felt like a tightly coiled spring lately. A wave of wanderlust has washed over me again. I have felt the world calling my name, summoning me, and I am desperate to jetset off on another adventure. I find that being in one place for so long feels stifling like an oppressively hot room which gradually creeps up on you in discomfort until you can scarcely breathe.

Don’t get me wrong, I love home. I have a wonderful family, incredible friends, a decently paid job in a good school with great kids. I am grateful for all that I have here, and by all accounts my life is far more fortunate than many people I know. Yet, I still know in my heart, there is more to come. More magical adventures than I can even imagine at this point.